Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel Bali Kuta

... at a restaurant called Bali Brazil, which was a mix of Brazilian and Indonesian food. I immediately loved Jorge & Daniel, the Ecuadorians. Jorge is extremely outgoing and very talkative. Daniel lives in San Diego, and also spent several years in Oregon (where Whitney grew up). They are much older than us (late thirties) but it didn't seem like there was any age difference at all. It was also very fun to practice my Spanish with them. This trip has had me thinking a lot about ...

... their amusements (we chose the jungle cruise) and they also had a roller coaster and all sorts of rides. You also got to go into their water park (which we didnt worry about) but is great for kids. In the afternoon we checked out the elephant conservation show where the elephants actually knew their parts in the show - it was so good! Then we got to head out onto the stage and play with the elephants! And for a theme park type thing everything inside was very cheap ...

... meanwhile had been enjoying her time in the sun and perving at all the physiques of all the aussie men. Who were all tanned and toned to the max. Its not like when you go away to a British resort and its full of Podgy, beer bellied lads and you occasionally get one with a good physique. Here its exactly the opposite much too Shelley&#8217;s delight&#8230;! And I have to say that I have also enjoyed perving (not at the men tho!) at all the bikini babes&#8230;.<br ...

... routine and pre-clubbing ritual. It was always very fun, but fighting<br>off the constant attacks by mozzies got very tiring. Kuta had loads and loads of feckin' mossies, and Tom and I had annoyingly run out of Mozzie spray; you could always see at least 4 mozzies circling someone at any one time - *******s!<br><br> As it was the FA Cup Final that evening, we went to a local bar to watch Everton Vs Chelsea. There was no way we were missing the match, however, Tom and Andy arrived ...

... back and his head rammed into my knees then thrown forward and his head was rammed into his knees. We bounced back to the top and I got teased for screaming. This was the end of our river rafting experience and we had to walk 400 steps to the top of the hill for showers and lunch. The boys sprinted up like billy goats and I flip splated my way to the top and stopped to take pictures as an excuse to catch my breath. When I finally made it to the top one of the kids was ...

... there's a fine line between feeling like you've been ripped off and feeling like you're ripping someone off. I've been on both sides and I'm not sure where I stand now. Before when I didn't know the price of anything, I would think...these people need this money more than I do...but now that I know how to get pretty low prices, I don't know what to say to myself. Philosophically and economically speaking, what exactly is a ...

... amp; offerings &amp; processions as long as we wear traditional dress or at least make an effort! It not like a chirch fete at home! as it goes on to midnight every evening with lots of praying &amp; music &amp; dancing &amp; eating. As each village has at least 3 temples it is quite likely that you will see an annual festival if you stay more than a week or so anywhere in Bali. Make the effort &amp; get ...

... times but luckily people in Bali are quite happy to come and knock on your window and point you in the right direction. In fact you can barely pull uo without people clustering around to help. One of the things I love about being here is how friendly and helpful everyone is. Bless them, they are so eager to help that even when they don't have the slightest idea what we are talking about, they will gesture emphatically and repeat the place name you have mentioned and ...

... and experiences. The friendly smiles, the helpful (and not so helpful) people. A wild mixture of tranquil peacefulness and 'in yer face' hustle bustle. So much poverty and historical sadness but also so much positive development for the future. It is very overwhelming thinking back to our first few days in Kerala, India - 4 months ago. Time has gone so fast but in many ways also stood still. Today we leave Bali and Asia. Next stop... Rarotonga (a pacific island to the east of New Zealand)

hello everybody! i've made it to bali (i know some of you already know this, but the first email only went to family, so here is the official first email!). ok, so after 21 hours of flying/connecting, i arrived in beautiful bali and spent one short day in kuta, the most touristy spot in bali. there wasn't much for me to do there so i went on immediately the next day to ubud, a artsy town in the middle of bali (not on the beach ...